Parliament nod for Central rule in Manipur

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 30. Parliament today approved the imposition of
President's rule in Manipur. A statutory resolution seeking
approval of the Presidential proclamation was adopted by voice
vote by the Lok Sabha this evening.

The Lower House's approval of the resolution, adopted on Friday
by the Rajya Sabha, where the Opposition has numerical
superiority, was deemed to be a formality, but not before the
Union Home Minister Mr. L. K. Advani, did some explaining.

Replying to the discussion, Mr. Advani defended the Government's
approach on tackling the situation in Manipur, saying there was
no question of another Ministry assuming power in Imphal. Central
rule would continue for some time to bring back normality in the
State so that the legislators could begin work in their
constituencies.

Mr. Advani said the Centre did not shy away from taking a u-turn
on the Naga ceasefire agreement as it felt duty- bound to honour
the sentiments of the people of Manipur, Assam and other
northeastern States.

Giving reasons for the delay in announcing the deletion of the
three words - ``without territorial limits'' - from the June 14
agreement with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (I-M),
he said the Government wanted to consult the outfit first. He
discounted reports in a section of the media that the NSCN (I-M)
had not agreed to the deletion of the three words.

Stating that the people of Manipur were not against the ceasefire
and the peace process, he pointed out that the Government's
commitment to protecting the State's territorial integrity was
even stated in the National Democratic Alliance manifesto.

The Government did not agree to the ceasefire being extended to
all Naga-inhabited areas in the region fearing that it could have
been used for raising the demand of a ``Greater Nagaland''. The
Chief Ministers of the States concerned were consulted on the
extension of the Naga ceasefire agreement last year as well as in
March this year, he said.

Agreeing with the suggestion that the Naga peace talks be held in
the country, Mr. Advani said the Government had inherited the
arrangement from the United Front regime. ``We want Mr.
Thiungaleng Muivah to come to the country and hold talks. We are
even ready to grant him immunity for that. We hope Mr. Muivah
will agree and the peace process will move ahead.''

`Advani failed in his duty'

Earlier, opening the debate, Mr. Santosh Mohan Dev of the
Congress took Mr. Advani to task for failing to manage the
political contradictions within the NDA and accused him of
failing in his duty as the NDA allies created instability.

In a hard-hitting speech, Mr. Dev said ``Manipur was a fit case''
for invocation of Article 356, but wanted to know why the
Minister failed to do his ``duty'' six months earlier (when the
Samata Party had managed to put together a majority through
defections).

Alleging that perhaps for the first time the Governor of a State
had to flee from Raj Bhavan, that too when New Delhi had a Home
Minister who was known as `Sardar Patel', the Congress leader
reminded the House that the Centre was obliged to send out a
message that President's rule would mean equal protection for all
sections of society in the northeast.

Introducing the motion, Mr. Advani assured the Lok Sabha - as he
had done in the Rajya Sabha last week - that the Manipur Assembly
would be dissolved and that the elections would be held within a
reasonable time.

In view of the Supreme Court verdict in the Bommai case, it was
not possible to dissolve the Assembly right away, and the
dissolution had to await the formal ratification of the
imposition of President's rule.